Tomb Raider Composer Seeks Treasure for Orchestral Recording

The composer behind the original Tomb Raider score, as well of those of the first few sequels, has taken to kickstarter with a few buddies to try and produce an orchestral recording called the Tomb Raider Suite. They’re asking for a considerable £160,000 to do so, which is explained thus:

“To hire a 76-piece orchestra and a 20-voice choir with a world-class conductor and studio engineer at one of the top studios in the world, then mix and master we need to raise £160,000.”

Having never tried to hire an orchestra, who knows, but it’s always amazing to me that people don’t provide a more detailed budget breakdown when asking for hundreds of thousands of pounds. The kickstarter’s raised just over £60,000 of the total so far.

I played through the first three Tomb Raiders on Playstation – the trio which the Tomb Raider Suite will be based on – but don’t find myself having the nostalgia for them that I have for other games of that era. No reflection on the developers of course but, in common with many other early 3D games, they’ve aged terribly – which those behind this kickstarter would doubtless argue is one of the reasons to re-record the score.

The suite was performed last year as the closing act to the Tomb Raider 20th anniversary celebrations

The series has many fans, of course, some of whom may even be swayed by a cleavage shot of a 1990s Lara render into backing this project.

Happily, while looking into this story Kotaku UK discovered an unused track from the original Tomb Raider. We’re happy to release it to the world, and encourage its inclusion in any future orchestral sessions.